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WHITE PAPER
Beta Version 1.2
November 2018
WABA.network
A network of decentralized economic hubs
Table of contents
Table of contents 1
Executive Summary 2
Introduction 3
WABA.network Framework 8
Monetary systems 9
Mutual Credit 9
Loyalty Programs 10
Municipal Currency 11
C3 Commercial Credit Circuit 12
Time Banking 13
Renewable Energy 14
1
Tokenomics 22
WABA.network Token 22
Built-in incentive structure 27
Advisors 31
Executive Summary
WABA.network is an open source platform1 that allows the creation of economic hubs,
empowering communities to tailor their own market, currency, monetary system and
governmental policies. In addition to its approach to complementary monetary systems,
WABA.network provides communities a unique and transparent solution to target triple
impact objectives (social, economic and environmental).
Community or complementary currencies are one of the most creative proposals that many
communities have adapted to satisfy needs not met by mainstream currency. The variety of
1
“(...) is an organization that is run through rules encoded as computer programs called smart contracts.” Source:
Wikipedia. Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decentralized_autonomous_organization. Last access: December
2017.
2
complementary monetary systems allows the achievement of a broad array of specific
objectives (for example, promoting recycling, creating more employment, etc.). Blockchain
technology can boost complementary currencies mainly in two ways: by providing a
technological infrastructure that makes their use practical and easily scalable, and by
offering a decentralized governing system that provides each user a higher level of
involvement.
At WABA.network, the preliminary study that a community is required to do before the
implementation of its own token becomes accessible at a very low effort – communities
can quickly design, test, and scale their currencies and markets by directly modifying the
monetary and government systems’ parameters. Additionally, the flexibility of the platform
will allow them to adapt the structure of their currencies to the new challenges that they
might face.
The tokenomics of the WABA.network platform will allow communities, developers and
community currency architects to use the WABA.network platform and to work
cooperatively in the development of new monetary and civic tech systems, thereby making
of the platform a decentralized organization. Communities will access the WABA.network
tools by paying a fee in USD or BTC , while developers and community currency architects
that work in conjunction with communities, helping them in the development of new
systems and features, will be rewarded also in USD or BTC.
WABA.network will be funded through the issuance of the WABA.network token (WNT), a
security token that represents the equity of the underlying company. The WNT represents a
claim on WABA.network future cash flows. Thus, the ownership of the WNT will grant the
right to earn dividends from the profits that the company will make. The smart-contract will
be built with a built-in deterministic price function and with a buy-back reserve. This reserve
allows investors to convert their tokens into the underlying asset (the one in which they
originally made the investment) at any point of time without interfering with the
organization’s needs of liquidity.
We firmly believe that we are heading towards a future of multiple self-managed tokens,
each of them designed to perform a specific function. Through WABA.network communities
can create their own currencies and expand their networks in an affordable, secure, and
accessible manner never before available. WABA.network stores potential value on the
decentralization provided by Blockchain technology, allowing users to reach higher levels
of material and spiritual well-being.
3
Introduction
Community or complementary currencies represent one of the most creative solutions that
communities have found to meet the needs that mainstream money does not fulfill, A
complementary currency is an agreement within a community to accept as a medium of
exchange a currency with no legal tender status. They are called “complementary” because
their aim is not to replace the legal tender but to perform functions that the latter is not
always able to deliver. Community currencies have proven to be effective in dealing with
three obstacles hindering the pursuit of the communities’ goals: the lack of money and/or
credit, the prevalence of misaligned incentives between the communities’ economic and
social actors, and the competition of outsiders (like transnational corporations, large chain
stores, etc.)
The Blockchain technology can boost complementary currencies in three major ways. First,
it can provide them with a technological infrastructure that makes their use practical and
easily scalable. Second, it offers communities a decentralized governing system for their
currencies. Thus, anyone can participate in the organization of the community as long as it
holds its tokens (the units of the complementary currency issued by the community). The
possession of tokens gives their owners the right to take part, collaborate, propose, rate and
vote on issues that are relevant for the underlying community. Third, it can create incentives
to make communities, software developers and “complementary currency architects”2 join
forces to develop new solutions that help communities achieve their goals.
This way of organizing communities, also known as open source organizations, is meant to
democratize ownership and decision making. The fact that the totality of this ownership is
distributed among token holders implies that all the value created in the community is kept
within, with no tensions between the stakeholders (interested in the growth of the
community) and shareholders (who aim at extracting value). In an open source organization
we are all stakeholders whose incentives are mutually aligned in pursuit of the goal that we
have all agreed upon.
2
By complementary or community currency architects we refer to people that have knowledge and experience
in the design of virtuous economic circuits and alternative monetary and governing systems, as well as on
community organization, whose ideas can be beneficial for communities that want to create their own
complementary currency.
4
Autonomous and sustainable communities need to control the money used
by their inhabitants and ensure that its design is aligned with its goals.
WABA.network combines the creativity of the various complementary currency systems
with the power of open source organizations to build a complete platform capable of
creating tokens that enable the pursuit of communities’ goals.
Use Cases
5
6
materialized under the form of LETS3. Thus, the issuances of PAR are not backed by a
certain asset like gold or the legal tender. Every PAR that is issued is backed by the
transactions that take place within the community. Tokens are like a voucher for an existing
product or service, or future ones. One PAR is worth for one Argentinean Peso.
The program was launched in January 2017 and is currently in the process of expansion and
consolidation. So far the following features of the monetary and governing system are
already operative. First, there are three types of overdraft margins, each of them given by
the different types of users that constitute the community: self-employed, small producers
and SMEs. The levels of these overdrafts are currently predetermined. The existence of the
overdraft implies that in order to purchase goods and services within the community users
do not need to have previously accumulated a positive stock of PAR.
Second, overdrafts are acquired by means of endorsement. The existing members of the
community are allowed to invite new members upon agreement of the executive
committee of PAR. The distribution of these endorsements is made through the electronic
wallet developed by WABA.network (the same that is used for making transactions). Thus, it
is always possible to verify the distribution chains of endorsements and the economic
performance of the clusters that these invitations gave rise to.
Third, the transactions within the community are made on a P2P basis through an electronic
wallet that works on smartphones. No middlemen are required. All the transactions carried
out in PAR are registered on the Blockchain, making them public, transparent and secure. In
order to facilitate the meeting of producers and consumers a digital marketplace has been
developed.
Currently, a promoting team is working on the development of the nodes of the network.
Thus far, it has been welcomed in municipalities, the industrial sector, the cooperative
sector, MSEs and social organizations. According to the information collected by the
promoters of PAR, its potential utilization would add up to 10% of Argentina’s GDP, which is
estimated to be the share of the cooperative sector in the overall economy.
3
“A local exchange trading system (...) is a locally initiated, democratically organised, not-for-profit community
enterprise that provides a community information service and records transactions of members exchanging
goods and services by using locally created currency.” Source: Wikipedia. Link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_exchange_trading_system . Last access: December 2017.
7
satisfied without jeopardizing the wellbeing of future generations. The fact that certain
activities are not considered profitable for the market does not imply that they are incapable
of producing valuable goods and services for the whole. On the other hand, some activities
may be considered profitable because their costs, instead of being internalized by the
producers, are transferred to the community as a negative externality. The development of
a mechanism that is capable of aligning the behaviour of the diverse actors that make up
the community in a way that is consistent with the common good cannot wait any longer.
The COLMENA Project (the spanish word for “hive”) is framed within the circular economy
approach. It seeks to take advantage of valuable resources that the community discards to
transform them into sources of work for those not integrated to the capitalistic market. By
means of the collaborative recycling of plastic waste at the local level and the subsequent
manufacturing of new products with recycled plastic, a virtuous economic loop is created.
The cornerstone of this circuit is given by the Jellycoin, a token specifically designed to
reward those who contribute to the growth of the system (be it by source separation of
residues or their delivery to recycling centers). In order to involve the whole community, not
only households are invited to participate, but also local businesses, social organizations
and the government. The project is being developed in the town of Campo Viera, in
northeastern Argentina.
Jellycoin is designed in such a way that anyone that takes the (previously classified)
residues to the recycling center is credited with tokens. These tokens can be used either to
consume at the local shops or to pay local taxes. When the Jellycoins are transferred to the
government as taxes they are burnt (otherwise, the monetary mass would tend to increase
infinitely since the production of residues is a continuous flow). The government is willing to
reduce its income in legal tender since, as a result of the implementation of Jellycoin, some
of the expenditures related to waste management will be saved. Thus, Jellycoin not only
encourages people to behave in a more environment-friendly fashion, but also strengthens
the local trade circuits.
WABA.network Framework
The WABA.network Framework is an open source framework comprised of smart contracts
and front-end libraries that allows communities to create and issue their own currency with
its governing system.
8
The technological infrastructure that determines each community’s operation is controlled
by a combination of common smart contracts (shared by all the communities in the
network). There are, however, specific smart contracts that each community (or group of
communities) will require according to the nature of its (or their) goals. Similarly, the built-in
interfaces of the network will be reusable throughout communities. These interfaces
include a digital wallet, an online market and a control panel.
WABA.network seeks to host, interconnect and scale up a wide variety of complementary
economic systems that have been being developed in the recent years. In order to make
this possible, WABA.network is designed as an open and extendable modular platform that
allows communities to rapidly prototype and test their own money and governing system in
such a way that the onboarding process is successful.
Monetary systems
Currency design is a key feature of the WABA.network Framework. Through a set of smart
contracts and easy-to-use setting tools, communities will define and customize the
properties of their currency. Unit of account, denomination, circulation (the issuance and
destruction rules as well as the mechanism through which the currency is put in circulation),
reserve criteria, demurrage, bonus/malus, etc. will be customized by the community
according to its goals. The platform will offer, however, standard preset designs: LETS,
mutual credit, C3, time banks, IOUs, loyalty schemes, etc.
Mutual Credit
By means of a Mutual Credit, the
different actors within the economy
(self-employed, SMEs, cooperatives)
can generate a credit system for the
members of a given community with
no need to rely on the traditional
banking system.
The participation is voluntary. When
entering the system, one can access
to credit at a zero interest rate. The
sole requirement to be granted an
overdraft is to show the capacity to
give the community own production
9
for an amount that equals the value of the credit that is being demanded.
When a member is granted a credit or overdraft, she is not given a positive balance but the
possibility to spend and remain with a negative balance up to the defined amount. The fact
that someone is holding a negative balance necessarily implies that another member of the
system is holding a positive balance. It must always be the case that the sum of all balances
add up to zero, implying that there is no financial wealth within the system. Money is just a
tool to keep track of transactions and enable exchanges to take place.
If a member of the community wants to sell sandwiches, she can request a credit (since
they will return the value by selling these sandwiches). When the community grants her the
credit, she can therefore buy the bread, ham and cheese and whatever is needed to
prepare the sandwiches for the other members of the network. When all the inputs have
been purchased, the wallet balance will be negative, for example -238 token units. When
the member finally sells the sandwiches, she will be able to return what she borrowed from
the community, and spend the difference (profit) on whatever she wants.
Loyalty Programs
The loyalty program generates a platform where retailers members can offer discounts to
their customers through token delivery. These tokens serve as a local purchase voucher.
Each retailer joining the
network receives a
defined quantity of
tokens. Each time a
customer buys a
product in fiat, the
retailer will refund a part
of the price in tokens.
For example, if Pedro
buys 100 pesos worth of
products in a shop that
offers a 20% refund rate,
he will receive 20
tokens in return after the
transaction.
10
The retailers, in return, commit themselves to accept tokens as a means of payment for
their products, offering discounts to their customers. In this way, if Pedro needs to spend
100 pesos in a store that offers a 10% discount rate, he will be able to pay with 90 pesos and
10 tokens instead of 100 pesos.
As long as the currency is only accepted by retailers of a specific region, the system can
succeed at stimulating the local economy as the generated wealth remains within the
community, Such an alternative is more beneficial than the banks discount schemes
financing the consumer’s retail purchases, that end up draining savings out of the region. By
means of this token local shops can do away with traditional intermediaries that offer
discounts and extract value from the connection between customers and vendors. As a
result, the price paid by customers drops, without grinding the retailers profits down.
Municipal Currency
This currency allows a municipality (or state, province, etc.) to issue its own token in order to
stimulate the local economy, promote good fiscal behaviour and, more generally, to
support all actions contributing to the common good.
When a household within the municipality does a positive action (such as paying taxes in
time, or participating in community projects), the government grants it a certain amount of
tokens. Why are these tokens useful? First of all, because the municipality is committed to
accept them as part of the payment of municipal taxes, instead of the legal tender.
Furthermore, households
can use tokens to access to
discounts offered by local
retailers that are members
of the network; it’s a way of
retaining more wealth and
make it remain within the
community,
Retailers have an incentive
to participate in the network
and accept tokens, given
that these tokens can also
be used to pay a part of the
local taxes. Furthermore,
11
The C3 is a credit system integrated within a network of companies, Each company that
joins the system can buy products by issuing tokens that have a fixed 1 to 1 parity with the
legal tender currency.. This transaction works as a zero-interest rate credit: the company
that purchased products by issuing tokens must pay the system administration, within a
predetermined period of time, the amount of legal tender equivalent to the number of
tokens it had issued,
Each token is associated with a certain credit, with a fixed due date, When a company has
tokens that have reached their expiration date, it can exchange them for legal tender with
the administration. Companies
have a limited quantity of
tokens to issue, For example,
the Perez company may not
have enough liquidity to buy
goods, worth of 5000 pesos,
that are produced by the
Rodriguez company. Instead
of resorting to a traditional
banking system credit, Perez
can give Rodriguez 5000
tokens, due in 90 days, in
exchange for the goods,
The purpose of this system is
that all tokens issued by Perez
serve as an internal means of
payment: they can be
exchanged for products from
the other companies in the system, Therefore, within the next 90 days, Rodriguez can use
12
Time Banking
In a Time Bank community members provide services in exchange for tokens
representing hours of work, All participants’ hours of work have the same value: one
cooking class hour is equal to one childcare hour.
The time bank works
as a mutual credit
system in which the
unit of account
corresponds to the
hours of work:
participants can
access to credit in
order to purchase
services from other
participants, on the
13
condition that they commit to provide hours of their own work to pay off their debt.
Each participant should aim for the amount of hours purchased from the rest of the
community to be equal to the amount provided to the community.
In a Time Bank, a bricklayer can take 5 hours of guitar lesson, as long as he has
offered 5 hours of his own work at another participant’s house, Alternatively, he can
go into debt to take these guitar lessons, committing himself to offer his time later.
Renewable Energy
14
pay off that debt, they must get tokens by offering their goods or services to the rest of the
participants in the community.
In order to facilitate the exchange of products, the KW balance of each user is also
expressed in the legal tender currency (referring to the KW market price). The unit of
account for exchanges would then be the legal tender, but the currency of the system still
remains a quality store of value since it is denominated in KW.
The renewable energy zone isn’t only beneficial for the environment, but also serves a
stimulator for the local economy, The system also contributes to the autonomy of a city,
taking into account the advantages of intelligent grids for the management of outages and
the reliability of the electrical system,
Circular Economy
The fact that some activities are not considered profitable by the market doesn’t imply that
they would be unable to produce valuable goods and services for the society,
The aim of the Circular
Economy Zone is to take
advantage of the valuable
resources that society
discards in order to
transform them into
useful products, and into
a source of income for
community members,
This can be achieved
through the
implementation of a
token that rewards those
who contribute to
recycling,
All the members of the
community who
collaborate in the recycling process (households separating at source, or collectors
transporting waste to recycling centers) are paid by the system with a token that indicates
15
the quantity of waste, in kilos, they’ve brought. The recycling centre uses the waste for the
production and sale of “green inputs” for industries.
The token generated by the recycling centers is useful because it can be used for everyday
transactions: households and collectors can use it to purchase products from local
businesses, and even to pay local government taxes. Local businesses, once they received
the tokens, can also pay a portion of their taxes with tokens or buy products from other
businesses,
By accepting tokens as part of tax payment, the government forgoes income in legal
tender. However, this is compensated by the savings that result from the drop of the outlays
in legal tender that the current (inefficient) way of waste management entails. The system
can be designed so that the government can improve its balance sheet, even when it
forgoes a part of its revenues in legal tender,
Through this virtuous economic cycle involving waste management, the community
products and a special purpose token, the behavior of the various actors are aligned in a
way that benefits the environment, the local economy and the common good,
16
Autocracy:
A single account governs
and controls the monetary
system and is able to set all
its parameters over time.
This government method
can be used, for example, in
the case of a currency
based on discounts implemented by a single trade. It can also be applied to cases in which,
although the decisions regarding the parameters of the system are made by a single
administrator, the latter can appeal to the users for consultations (non-binding referendums)
in order to have more information to take a decision. This method could apply to a municipal
currency for example.
Aristocracy:
A small set of accounts,
previously defined
(although modifiable over
time) governs the
monetary system. Each
decision regarding the
parameters may require
the consensus of all the
governing accounts, or
the positive vote of a
minimum number of
accounts. For example, a
group of businesses can
17
create a system to encourage to "buy local". The founding members define the system’s
characteristics and modify the parameters over time. Those joining and taking part must
accept the previously defined rules. Just like in the case of an autocracy, administrators can
appeal to members for consultations as an information mechanism for decision-making.
Representative government:
All members of the system have the right to vote on decisions regarding the system
parameters, although this voting is carried out indirectly. Each member votes for a
representative (who must be previously candidate) to represent them on all matters
relevant to the monetary system, during a fixed period of time. Members can also vote for
“executives” who will be authorized to make decisions without the need to appeal to the
group of representatives.
Direct Democracy:
All members of the
system have the
right to vote on
decisions
regarding the
system
parameters,
without the
possibility to
delegate. At each
voting instance,
voters can choose whether to exercise their right to vote or opt for abstention.
Liquid Democracy:
A combination of direct democracy and representative government where each member
can decide whether to abstain, vote directly or delegate their vote to a representative when
voting for a decision that the node must take.
18
In a democratic system all members have the right to vote, by definition. Therefore, the
definition of the conditions that make an individual a member of the economic node is
crucial. In general, the criterion used is the possession of the node’s tokens, either at the
moment the vote is carried out or at some point during a certain period. Defining the node
members this way can lead to different levels of equality, since the voting systems can be
weighted by the possession of tokens (in which case the system would derive in a
combination of democracy and oligarchy) or unweighted.
It is important to note that communities may choose to modify their government method
over time, or even choose different systems depending on the decision they wish to make.
As an example, the account that governs a autocratic system may decide to submit a
government decision to be voted directly by all or some of the participants in their
community. Similarly, a community governed by a direct democracy may decide, through
the vote of its members, to delegate indeterminately the decision-making process
regarding a specific parameter to a reduced number of accounts.
In general, the different variants of democracy will be applied to the economic nodes linked
to the social economy area, where community development is carried out horizontally, from
the bottom to the top.
19
Each proposal is made up of two parts: the suggested alteration and the minimum approval
levels required for the change to be effective (for example, simple majority, two-thirds or
unanimity). Each time a member submits a proposal, the rest of the community decides
whether the proposal becomes a poll by approving or rejecting it through their votes. The
members must also choose the minimum level of approval they consider relevant during
this vote.
If the proposal reaches a certain percentage of the votes - defined when the node is
created - it effectively becomes a survey by which community members can vote on the
suggested change. The minimum approval level for the change to be effective will be the
one that received the highest number of votes. The node administrators (either one, several
or all members) can also modify the parameter corresponding to the minimum number of
votes needed for a certain proposal to be taken to the survey phase.
The voters qualified to participate will be established at the time of the proposal approval.
Communities can set the period of time during which voters can participate in a survey, with
a minimum of 7 days and a maximum of 30 days.
20
Once a survey has been carried out, the change then becomes effective if the required
amount of votes has been reached, according to the minimum approval level. The
corresponding parameters will be modified after a week and should remain unchanged for
a minimum period of time that was previously stipulated when the node was launched. Any
new proposal regarding the updated parameters can be brought to a vote, once that time
has elapsed.
Virtual Wallet
The WABA.network framework makes mobile and web wallets available to communities,
with the objective to carry out their transactions under all standard mechanisms that are
commonly and widely used.
The wallet will allow members to carry out transactions with any of the tokens created on
the platform, as well as manage the rest of the modules - government module and market
module - of the economic nodes to which they belong. The wallet will also enable users
functionalities such as the participation in the voting process, the delegation of votes, the
import and export of accounts and access to all market tools - publications, reputation of
the rest of the members, transactions records, among others.
21
Virtual Market
The WABA.network framework will include a set of modules to design decentralized
markets for the P2P trade of products and services.
In the virtual market the members of each community will be able to publish the products
they offer, pay for the products they purchase, search for potential suppliers and customers
using configurable filters, rate other members and personalize their own profile.
Furthermore, the shops will have commercial tools at their disposal that will allow them to
manage their inventories, follow their transactions and determine their shipping options.
To ensure the safe custody of all funds and the resolution of disputes, the virtual market of
WABA.network will offer the ability to handle guarantee deposit. All parties involved in an
exchange may choose to accept an independent third party before a transaction, whose
account will be credited with the buyer’s assets as collateral. The assets may be released
solely with the agreement of two of the three parties. This functionality minimizes the threat
of scammers trying to take advantage of buyers and sellers.
Control Panel
The control panel will allow each community to manage the parameters in a consistent
manner with their government method, as well as to monitor the specific KPIs of each
economic system in real time - for example, the tokens’ emission amount, the tokens’ speed
of circulation, the transaction volumes, the credit volumes, etc. The panel will also include
functionalities linked to the governance of the system, such as the creation of proposals and
their follow-up, the implementation of surveys and the analysis of their results.
Tokenomics
WABA.network Token
WABA.network will be funded through the issuance of the WABA.network token (WNT), a
security token that represents the equity of the underlying company. The WNT represents a
22
claim on WABA.network future cash flows. Thus, the ownership of the WNT will grant the
right to earn dividends from the profits that the company will make. However, only the
founders and the early contributors will be the actual owners of the company. The funds
raised in the contribution period (until the first 5,000,000 USD are raised) will be used as
follows:
The WNT will follow the bonding curve model, a specific type of smart-contract that allows
an open source organization to finance its operations through the issuance of security
tokens with a deterministic price function and with a buy-back reserve. This reserve allows
investors to convert their tokens into the underlying asset (the one in which they originally
made the investment) at any point of time without interfering with the organization’s needs
of liquidity.
The smart contract issues its own tokens through buy and sell functions. To buy WNT, the
investor sends BTC to the buy function which calculates the average price of the token in
BTC and issues the correct amount of WNT. Conversely, the sell function calculates the
average selling price and sends the correct amount of BTC.
There is no fixed supply of WNT. Initially WABA.network will mint 5.000.000 WNT each of
them worth 1 USD, which will be distributed proportionally among the founders and the
early contributors. WNT will be subsequently issued under two circumstances: i) every time
an investor demands WNT and; ii) every time the project issues dividends to the
shareholders.
23
W N T Buy = bW N T Supply
Sell
WNT = sW N T Supply where b > s f or all W N T Supply
Whenever an investor sends funds in BTC to the buy function of the smart contract a
fraction of those funds are held in the buy-back reserve fund (the orange area in the graph)
and the rest are transferred to WABA.network’s wallet to be used as a source of funding to
cover the operating expenditures (the blue area in the graph). Thus, if at the moment of an
investment the total supply of WNT is 61 and an investor wants to purchase 8 WNT, given
that supply she will have to pay an amount equal to the definite integral of the buy function.
69
T otal f unds sent by the investor (X) = ∫ W N T Buy (W N T Supply ) dW N T Supply
61
Of those X BTC sent by the investor the following amount will be held at the buy-back
reserve.
69
F unds held at the buyback reserve (Y ) = ∫ W N T Sell (W N T Supply ) dW N T Supply
61
24
The difference between the funds sent by the investor and fraction held at the buy-back
reserve are the available funds that WABA.network will use to finance its activities. Note that
the amount of available funds will be larger the larger the gap between b and s .
Since the tokens allocated to founders and early contributors will be pre-minted (meaning
that they will not be backed up by the funds in the buy-back reserve) they will be subject to
a two-year vesting period. This implies that whereas the Buy function of the smart-contract
will be operational by mid-2019 (when the MVP of the platform is live), the Sell function will
be enabled by the end of 2020, once the project starts generating net profits that can
generate the funds that, together with the new investments, contribute to the increase of
the buy-back reserve.
After the Sell function is enabled investors will be allowed to sell their WNT at any time to
get their BTC back. When the sell function receives a request from an investor, it
automatically burns the amount of WNT held by the investor and sends her the equivalent
amount of BTC at the corresponding price (which is a function of the total supply of WNT at
that point of time). The BTC sent to the investor are taken from the buy-back reserve,
thereby not affecting WABA.network’s cash reserves.
However, the model has built-in incentives to encourage investors to hold the WNT. The
spread between the buy price and the sell price creates an incentive to hold the WNT until
the project starts to produce revenues and/or other investors purchase more tokens. In the
first case, the holder of the WNT will see an increase in both her stock of WNT and its price.
In the latter case it will only see a capital gain derived from the higher price of her (constant)
stock of WNT.
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The second source of cash flows for the smart-contract are the dividends that arise from
WABA.network’s operations, which include mainly:
✓ Set-up fees for communities that create their own token through the platform
✓ Transaction fees for communities running on the platform.
Communities that want to use the tools of WABA.network will have to pay a fee, payable in
fiat or crypto. This fee will be split into a fixed part, payable when the community creates its
token, and a variable part which will depend on the value of the transaction it makes. The
initial fee will be equal to 1 USD per account. The variable fee will be equal to 3% of the total
transaction value.
Additionally, WABA.network can make profits out of:
✓ Tailormade solutions for specific customers (set-up plus transaction fees).
✓ Consulting on community currencies
✓ Technical support to already running community currencies
At any point of time (predefined or not) WABA.network can decide to pay dividends to the
holders of WNT. To do so, WABA.network must send BTC to the smart-contract. As a result,
two processes will be triggered.
First, the buy-back reserve will be increased. Unlike the case of the investment, where only
a fraction of the incoming funds where held at the reserve, in the case of the payment of
dividends 100% of the BTC sent to the contract go to the buy-back reserve. Second, WNT
holders are paid the corresponding dividends in newly minted WNT as a proportion of their
previous holdings.
The fact that the distributed BTC are entirely used to back the newly minted WNT implies
that the slope of the sell function increase, thereby benefiting all WNT holders. Should they
decide to sell the recently earned WNT they would make a double profit: one arising from
an higher holding of WNT and another arising from an increased value of the previous stock
of WNT that they were holding before dividends were distributed. The effect of dividend
distribution is depicted in Graph 3, where the slope of the sell function is larger than the one
observed in Graphs 1 and 2. The change in the slope of the sell function implies that WNT
holders have increased their holdings and that the price of their tokens is now higher. The
area depicting the available funds for WABA.network has not quantitatively changed,
although its shape has.
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The possibility of dividend distribution implies that the slope of the selling function is not
constant, but a function that depends on the amount of funds held at the buy-back reserve
(R). At every point of time R can be recalculated following the next formula:
W N T Supply 2
st W N T Supply
Rt = ∫ W N T Sell (W N T Supply ) dW N T Supply = st W N T Supply dW N T Supply = 2
0
Hence, the slope of the selling function is continuously adjusting in such a way that:
2Rt
st = 2
W N T Supply
Since we want WABA.network to be an open source platform we designed a token with
built-in incentives to promote the community currency actors to get involved in the
development of the project.
Normally, communities that require a complementary currency to pursue a certain goal do
not have a direct contact with the software developers and the economists that are capable
of designing and developing the solution they need. By means of our platform these three
actors will work together in the development of new features and systems. If these
developments are made open source and appended to the platform they will be
automatically rewarded with part of the funds raised by the organization. These reward
system are designed to make the WABA.network platform more independent from our own
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work. Even if we plan to be engaged for a long time, we strongly believe in the concept of
DAOs and the capacity that these type of organizations to grow organically.
WABA.network will provide communities with standard (parameterized) templates of
monetary and government systems that will enable them to build their own economy.
Should they need to modify these templates to make them better fit their needs, or in case
they require a whole new system, they could call upon developers and community
currency architects for their help. If these latter offer their work to the communities and if as
a result of this joint collaboration a final product is delivered, all the parties involved in the
process will be rewarded with part of the available funds in the smart-contract.
The reward given to the participants of these joint collaborations will depend on the size
and usefulness of their contributions. The size dimension can consist of two categories:
features and systems. A feature is any component or element that is added to an existing
monetary or civic tech system. A system is, as it name already indicates, a monetary or civic
tech model that communities can choose to run their hubs. The usefulness of these
innovations will be determined by the number of accounts that make use of the features
that those code lines create. When developers (either on their own or in collaboration with
complementary currency architects and communities) append a new feature or system to
the existing resources of the WABA.network platform they will be allocated a certain
amount of funds, which will depend directly on the size of the innovation. They could then
choose whether to claim those funds or to keep them in the platform to earn an additional
reward arising from the usefulness that the innovation might eventually have. The
withdrawal of the funds, whenever it is decided, will imply that no more rewards would
accrue from the corresponding innovation.
INCLUIR INFOGRAFÍA DEL WNT
There are several reasons why this model can be beneficial to both WABA.network and its
investors.
First, the fact that the price functions are deterministic reduces the uncertainty of WNT
holders.
Second, the price of the WNT, far from being subject purely to the market sentiment,
results from a combination of WABA.network’s economic performance (reflected by
dividend distribution) and the investors’ expectations on future profits. The more optimistic
these expectations are, the higher the investors’ willingness to purchase WNT and,
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therefore the higher the available funds that WABA.network will have at its disposal to
undertake new developments.
Third, there is a guaranteed immediate liquidity for investors that what to go for an exit.
Fourth, unlike the traditional model of ICO where there is a limited supply of tokens (and
therefore a limited capacity of funding) in this case the project can always get future access
to funding as long as it proves to be successful in the different goals that are set by the
founders. Additionally, the issuance of newly minted WNT does not imply an increase in the
company’s liabilities and, therefore, a potentially dangerous leveraged position.
Fifth, there is a built-in incentive structure that attempts to promote the collaborative work
of the different users of the WABA.network platform.
WABA.network Founders
We are programmers, engineers, economists, developers and creative individuals with
proven successful experiences in deep tech, taking part in the core development phases of
projects such as Bitshares, as well as in the field and in the academia.
The WABA.network team is composed of high-skilled professionals with proven capacities
to successfully deliver the platform presented in this white paper.
Marina Solanas
CEO
marina@waba.network
Marina is a triple impact entrepreneur with academic training in Industrial Engineering. She
also studied a Master's Degree in Renewable Energy Systems and an Engineering
Leadership Certificate at Northeastern University and the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) through a Fulbright Scholarship.
Since 2008, she has developed her career as a leader in projects aligned with sustainable
development with teams of engineers and scientists in industry, academy and the third
sector in Argentina, the United States and Spain.
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Marina co-designs the strategy and coordinates the WABA.network team in order to make
the most of the potential of blockchain technology to achieve sustainable development
objectives.
Sebastian Valdecantos
CEO
sebastian@waba.network
Sebastian holds a PhD in Economics from Université Paris Sorbonne-Cité, where he
graduated with a thesis modeling international monetary systems. He is in charge of the
design, execution and follow-up of WABA.network core projects.
In addition to his role in WABA.network, he works as the Chief Economist of the MonedaPAR
project and as a professor of Macroeconomics in the national universities of San Martín
(UNSAM) and Mar del Plata (UNMDP) in Argentina.
Previously, he worked as an Economic Affairs Officer at the Economic Commission for Latin
America and the Caribbean of the United Nations (UN-ECLAC). He specializes in the
construction of dynamic systems adapted to the study and treatment of different economic
problems.
His knowledge is essential for the design of the structures of WABA.network’s economic
hubs.
Pablo Tutino
CTO
pablo@waba.network
Pablo is an Information Systems Engineer, FinTech entrepreneur, entrepreneur in
Blockchain for triple impact and Full-stack developer.
In addition to his role in WABA.network, he is a member of the Board of Directors of the
Bitcoin Argentina NGO and works in the Definition of Strategy and Institutional Relations of
the MonedaPAR project.
He has 10 years of experience as entrepreneur, 15 years of experience as a full-stack
developer and 4 founded companies, including Latincoin, Bitcoin Exchange and
LimeWallet, the wallet for Bitshares 1.0.
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Active participant in transfer pricing controversy cases since the introduction of transfer
pricing legislation in Argentina in 1998. Client assistance in identifying and implementing
controversy strategies, negotiating with tax authorities, and defense preparation and review.
August Corrons
Community currencies expert
august@waba.network
Doctorate from the Jaume I University (UJI) in 2018. Interuniversity Master's Degree in
Development Cooperation from the Jaume I University (UJI), the University of Valencia (UV)
and the Interuniversity Institute for Local Development (IIDL). Master in Management and
Business Management from the Institute of Business Executives (IDE). Engineer of Roads,
Channels and Ports, and Technical Engineer of Public Works from the Polytechnic
University of Catalonia (UPC).
Since 2010 August has been teaching Economics and Business Studies at the Open
University of Catalonia (UOC), in the field of corporate social responsibility, business
management and occupational risk prevention. While he’s been teaching at the UOC, he’s
been maintaining his business activity, managing companies in the civil engineering and
construction sectors.
He’s a member of the Oikonomic writing team (Journal of Economics, Business and Society
of the UOC) as well as the IJCCR (International Journal of Community Currency Research).
His research interests are centred on social and complementary currencies, collaborative
and solidarity economy, local and sustainable development, as well as social psychology.
Diego Gutiérrez Zaldívar
Biz Strategy and Technology
dgz@rsk.co
Diego was one of the pioneers of web development in Argentina and Latin America back in
1995 and has had a leading role in fostering Bitcoin technology in Latin America since 2012.
Diego got in touch with Bitcoin in 2011 and since 2012, decided to completely devote
himself to the creation of the Argentinean and Latam grassroot communities. Diego
co-founded Rootstock, the first open-source peer-to-peer smart-contract platform and
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payment network with a 2way peg to Bitcoin, and Koibanx, both companies aim to turn the
transformative potential of Bitcoin into a reality.
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